Sheila decided to make an early start today, so left me loafing in bed at seven and had us on our way by twenty past. Must say I am finding it hard to get started these mornings, so it was good to take a bit of time to get my act together.
I'd finally sorted breakfast and was about to have a quick browse through my emails whilst spooning the muesli down when a glance through the bow doors showed Grendon Dock just coming into view. I was just able to scoff it all and get out on the back in time for Sheila to grab hers before we got to the bottom of Atherstone.
It was now 9.30. I did the first six locks; we arrived between six and five just about an hour later. The locks were in a typical first thing in the morning state, some full, some empty and some half and half.
We got most of what we wanted in Aldi and were back at the boat by ten past eleven. Putting stuff away took a while, so that it was too late to set off again before lunch. This meal was therefore taken early and we got going at ten past twelve, me steering and Sheila locking. There were a bunch of Volockies having their lunch at the top; they did take time to help us through lock one.
I left Sheila steering and retired to the cabin to potter about, doing the washing up and the like. The wind was becoming just a little troublesome as we got to Springwood Haven; we were well pleased to knock off for the day at half two. It's become breezier still since we stopped.
We just hope it will have moderated a bit by tomorrow morning for the run through Nuneaton and Hawkesbury.
Showing posts with label Springwood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Springwood. Show all posts
Friday, 21 March 2014
Monday, 3 June 2013
A longish day
With the long run from All Oaks to Springwood Haven to do, we had our early morning tea at six and were on our way by seven. The weather is now all that could be wished, warm, sunny and calm. The first thing chill soon burnt off and Sheila, who was steering, gradually shed layers of garments until she was in her polo shirt sleeves.
I took over for the last of the Oxford and first of the Coventry Canals so that I had the 180ยบ turn through Sutton's Stop to do, Sheila having managed it last time. I hit it just a shade too quickly and had to go astern to avoid scraping the bow on the wall opposite, but otherwise all was well.
After steering us past the excitements of Charity Dock and Marston Junction with the Ashby I relinquished command to Sheila once more. This proved to be good timing from my point of view as we came up behind a tall thin gent single handing a very small boat at a very leisurely pace. It took us around 45 minutes to do the final mile to Boot Wharf, mostly in tickover. If we hadn't been planning to stop there, we'd have persuaded him to let us by.
As it was, it turned out that he too was in need of fuel, so we waited on the towpath side until he'd been seen to. After that, things got going again. We got a discount on the fuel for taking over 100 litres and had the usual high standard of pump out.
When we were on our way once more I went below to make some sandwiches, eating them on the bow as the last of Nuneaton slid by. Once fed, I took the helm again to let Sheila get hers, arriving at Springwood as she was scoffing a banana.
We've tied on the towpath opposite the marina and have been sitting out watching a fairly steady procession of boats go by. We're looking forward to seeing Chris and Anne tonight and to a much easier day tomorrow, down Atherstone probably to spend the night just above the last two locks.
I took over for the last of the Oxford and first of the Coventry Canals so that I had the 180ยบ turn through Sutton's Stop to do, Sheila having managed it last time. I hit it just a shade too quickly and had to go astern to avoid scraping the bow on the wall opposite, but otherwise all was well.
After steering us past the excitements of Charity Dock and Marston Junction with the Ashby I relinquished command to Sheila once more. This proved to be good timing from my point of view as we came up behind a tall thin gent single handing a very small boat at a very leisurely pace. It took us around 45 minutes to do the final mile to Boot Wharf, mostly in tickover. If we hadn't been planning to stop there, we'd have persuaded him to let us by.
As it was, it turned out that he too was in need of fuel, so we waited on the towpath side until he'd been seen to. After that, things got going again. We got a discount on the fuel for taking over 100 litres and had the usual high standard of pump out.
When we were on our way once more I went below to make some sandwiches, eating them on the bow as the last of Nuneaton slid by. Once fed, I took the helm again to let Sheila get hers, arriving at Springwood as she was scoffing a banana.
We've tied on the towpath opposite the marina and have been sitting out watching a fairly steady procession of boats go by. We're looking forward to seeing Chris and Anne tonight and to a much easier day tomorrow, down Atherstone probably to spend the night just above the last two locks.
Labels:
Nuneaton,
Springwood
Sunday, 10 June 2012
A mixed day
Mostly, it's been a great day; we set off early again, and breakfasted on the move on a gloriously sunny morning. Steady progress was made all the way to Sutton's, where Sheila swung Sanity Again through the turn with just one reverse.
We lunched on the move as well, myself before we got to Boot Wharf in Nuneaton and Sheila afterwards. As indicated by Adam, they were very helpful and friendly at Boot, and we took just under 132 litres of diesel. The domestic price had actually gone down a penny to 89 ppl, and we were able to declare 30% propulsion.
After Sheila had finished lunch, she took over again, and things began to go slightly wrong. I was doing bow lookout as we approached Bridge 15, the one just before Marston Junction, and saw a bow enter the bridge hole as we got there. Sheila reversed hard and managed to pull Sanity Again up to a dead stop, but before she could get her moved over out of the way, the other steerer, who knew we were there from his crew in the well deck, just kept going.
[Edit: this actually happened before lunch, of course, as Marston is between Bedworth and Nuneaton; I'm just checking to see if you are awake at the back...
/wahaha]
His bow guard ploughed into our bow flash, scraping the coloured diamonds, whilst the crew just sat there and watched it happen.
I did my best to fend off, but two steel boats will win over flesh and blood every time. Heigh ho, hopefully we can get them touched in in September when we're up at Poynton next.
We've stopped on a lovely quiet mooring a bit beyond the Springwood Haven Marina. The tiller had been shaking quite a bit, so I popped down the weedhatch to see if we had stuff round the prop. Unfortunately, there was nothing there; the cause of the shaking is that we have a second, larger, ding in a prop blade. It means we'll have to get her docked as soon as we can, probably at Mercia; I'll give Justin at Aqua a ring in the morning to see when he can fit us in.
It probably means a new prop; I don't mind having one small bend knocked out, but two is a bit much. We'll see what he says once she's high and dry. At least she has a standard Midland Chandlers prop, so getting a new one is just a matter of popping into the chandlery at Mercia.
Two other things:
Overheard at Newbold yesterday evening from the steerer of a brand new 521xxx registered boat looking in vain for a mooring "There are just too many boats on the canals these days!" I don't think he was joking. This is a bit like sitting in a traffic jam complaining about all the other cars in the way.
I've tried turning off the word verification on the comments entry page. It means I'm seeing a lot of spam comments coming through, but so far the spam filter seems to be keeping them off the blog itself. It will make it easier for people to comment; the Captcha verification was getting more and more tedious.
Finally, a photo or three:
We lunched on the move as well, myself before we got to Boot Wharf in Nuneaton and Sheila afterwards. As indicated by Adam, they were very helpful and friendly at Boot, and we took just under 132 litres of diesel. The domestic price had actually gone down a penny to 89 ppl, and we were able to declare 30% propulsion.
After Sheila had finished lunch, she took over again, and things began to go slightly wrong. I was doing bow lookout as we approached Bridge 15, the one just before Marston Junction, and saw a bow enter the bridge hole as we got there. Sheila reversed hard and managed to pull Sanity Again up to a dead stop, but before she could get her moved over out of the way, the other steerer, who knew we were there from his crew in the well deck, just kept going.
[Edit: this actually happened before lunch, of course, as Marston is between Bedworth and Nuneaton; I'm just checking to see if you are awake at the back...
/wahaha]
His bow guard ploughed into our bow flash, scraping the coloured diamonds, whilst the crew just sat there and watched it happen.
I did my best to fend off, but two steel boats will win over flesh and blood every time. Heigh ho, hopefully we can get them touched in in September when we're up at Poynton next.
We've stopped on a lovely quiet mooring a bit beyond the Springwood Haven Marina. The tiller had been shaking quite a bit, so I popped down the weedhatch to see if we had stuff round the prop. Unfortunately, there was nothing there; the cause of the shaking is that we have a second, larger, ding in a prop blade. It means we'll have to get her docked as soon as we can, probably at Mercia; I'll give Justin at Aqua a ring in the morning to see when he can fit us in.
It probably means a new prop; I don't mind having one small bend knocked out, but two is a bit much. We'll see what he says once she's high and dry. At least she has a standard Midland Chandlers prop, so getting a new one is just a matter of popping into the chandlery at Mercia.
Two other things:
Overheard at Newbold yesterday evening from the steerer of a brand new 521xxx registered boat looking in vain for a mooring "There are just too many boats on the canals these days!" I don't think he was joking. This is a bit like sitting in a traffic jam complaining about all the other cars in the way.
I've tried turning off the word verification on the comments entry page. It means I'm seeing a lot of spam comments coming through, but so far the spam filter seems to be keeping them off the blog itself. It will make it easier for people to comment; the Captcha verification was getting more and more tedious.
Finally, a photo or three:
 |
| Coventry lurks on the horizon |
 |
| Approaching Stretton Stop |
 |
| Birmingham International must be busy, look at those contrails |
Labels:
Nuneaton,
Springwood
Sunday, 20 May 2012
Up Atherstone
As predicted, we had a great time last evening, and a peaceful night to follow, though we'd still prefer to stop a bit out in the country, probably. Ironically, we've come on as far as the towpath outside the Valley Cruisers base at Springwood Haven today, and there's a bunch of kids spoiling the peace riding a trail bike up and down the towpath just now.
I could go and remonstrate with them, but it probably wouldn't achieve anything beyond making us and the boat a target for their malice. We're a bit too close to Nuneaton, basically.
As might be imagined, we're a bit dozy today after our late night last night, but it's still been a good day's boating, along to the foot of Atherstone, then chasing Dolce Far Niente up the locks; they'd stopped at the bottom overnight, and were just setting off as we came round the corner by the service block.
We paused half way up to do a quick shop at the Co-op, then carried merrily on. A Valley Cruisers hire boat was waiting to come down Lock 5 as we came up, and the steerer, Ann(e), called across that she reads this blog every day.
So, hi, Ann(e), glad you like it, and I should have asked about the 'e'!
Dolce carried on to Springwood, and we've followed, tying just behind. We've had a good old natter this afternoon, catching up on stuff since we last saw them at Braunston when we were moving Bunnies Warren. They've done a good bit of boating since then, and like us are now heading towards Crick.
That's about all I can do today, I'm too dopey to be very creative. Tomorrow, on just as far as Marston Junction, then on Tuesday we plan to pop into Coventry, a place we've not visited by boat for many years.
At least those kids have shoved off now.
I could go and remonstrate with them, but it probably wouldn't achieve anything beyond making us and the boat a target for their malice. We're a bit too close to Nuneaton, basically.
As might be imagined, we're a bit dozy today after our late night last night, but it's still been a good day's boating, along to the foot of Atherstone, then chasing Dolce Far Niente up the locks; they'd stopped at the bottom overnight, and were just setting off as we came round the corner by the service block.
We paused half way up to do a quick shop at the Co-op, then carried merrily on. A Valley Cruisers hire boat was waiting to come down Lock 5 as we came up, and the steerer, Ann(e), called across that she reads this blog every day.
So, hi, Ann(e), glad you like it, and I should have asked about the 'e'!
Dolce carried on to Springwood, and we've followed, tying just behind. We've had a good old natter this afternoon, catching up on stuff since we last saw them at Braunston when we were moving Bunnies Warren. They've done a good bit of boating since then, and like us are now heading towards Crick.
That's about all I can do today, I'm too dopey to be very creative. Tomorrow, on just as far as Marston Junction, then on Tuesday we plan to pop into Coventry, a place we've not visited by boat for many years.
At least those kids have shoved off now.
Labels:
Springwood
Monday, 17 May 2010
Another brief post
16th & 17th May
It’s a rather unstable connection here at All Oaks Wood, so another summary post, I’m afraid. Highlights of the last two days:
The night before last we had a minor run at Hartshill in with a bunch of youths throwing stuff like lamp irons in the cut, so thought it prudent to move on to a new (to us) mooring just before Springwood Haven. After a good night’s kip, we decided to stay put for another day, so that Elanor could rendezvous with us with some post and an exchange of books.
This worked out OK yesterday, though Elanor tells us that the track down to Springwood Marina (where Valley Cruisers are based) is quite hard on a low slung car. There’s no longer a car park by Bridge 29.
We got some washing and brass polishing done on a very pleasant day, weatherwise.
After a rather broken night’s sleep, we did one of our flying starts today, setting off at 6 on a bright but cold morning. It was an uneventful but pleasant chug through Nuneaton to Hawkesbury Junction, where we refilled the water tank.
We had to wait for a bit of traffic to come through the turn, after which I’m pleased to say that I got Sanity Again through pretty smoothly, despite a boat tied in front of the Greyhound whilst a toilet cassette was emptied.
Then it was steadily on down the North Oxford. We could have stopped at Ansty, but we’ve pressed on to All Oaks Wood. There’s a mixture of lurkers and those passing through here; we’re only going to stop the one night before going on to Newbold for a couple of days and a trip into Rugby probably. Newbold normally has a decent connection, so I should be able to sort the blog out properly there.
Labels:
All Oaks Wood,
Springwood
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